Battered physically and psychologically in the wake of a horrific car accident, Erika Wernick takes a leave from her post as a reporter at the Seattle Times to return home to Big Bear Lake to recover.
Intent on nothing more than holing up in the mountains to let herself mend, she is begrudgingly pulled along by her uncle to join him and his friends for their morning coffee at the local shop.
Thinking it is nothing more than a few recent retirees in need of filling the time, it isn’t until she arrives that she discovers the gathering is of a much different nature. Joining her uncle, the former town sheriff, is Craig Cobb, a past detective with LAPD, and Lou Tobias, a medical examiner from nearby Riverside. Together, the three men form the Hobby Lobby, a term of affection given to the group that meets each morning to help each other through the various hobby cases each picked up over the course of their careers.
Initially seeing the men as nothing more than a curiosity, it isn’t until Erika learns of the tragic death of a former classmate that she begins to put stock into what they do. Seeing a lot of herself in the girl she hasn’t spoken to in years, she begins to prod at the supposed suicide, looking past the macabre surface at the details surrounding the incident.